Happy New YOU

Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks for visiting my blog, and briefly joining me in my life and writing journey. I know you have your own journey, which is why I've titled this post, "Happy New YOU."

I'm not much for making New Year's resolutions. When I have, they've usually been about diet issues, and those who know me personally can attest to how well that's worked out. Turning the pages of our life gives all of us an opportunity to start fresh, head in a new direction, try something we've never done before, fulfill that promise we've been making to ourselves for years. In reality, life gives us a chance for a new start every morning.

Lots of "new" things happened to me in 2014. I had to get used to living alone, which was a challenge at first. Thanks to friends and family I don't feel alone. LADY ON THE EDGE, the latest edition in my Brad Frame mysteries was published in 2014. You can take a look at the first chapter, and hopefully it will be on your reading list for 2015. I had the chance to perform my one-man show based on the life of Ben Franklin at PACA in Erie, PA. It was a memorable experience, and I look forward to doing more performances in the coming year. I sold a condo, bought a condo, packed, moved, met new friends, kept up with old ones, lost a few pounds, exercised more, started working on a new mystery novel, got involved with a new writers' group, and spent my first full year in retirement. Whew!!!

Life truly is a mystery that unfolds for us each day. It's exciting for me to anticipate what will happen next with my own story. I try to make the most of it, and I hope you do too.

What are you looking forward to in the coming year? Join the conversation.

Once Upon a Time

We all like a good story.

Recall a time when you sat on the sofa with a parent or grandparent reading you a story, and it provokes an emotional image.

Just the words "Once upon a time..." conjure up wonderful memories. And during this holiday season we find ourselves watching fresh those favorite stories that charmed us when we were young (A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's a Wonderful Life), or that bring back a special time with loved ones (in my case, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and The Bishop's Wife).

I've done a fair amount of theatre in my life, and I worked with one director who kept reminding us actors, "Tell the story." I often chuckle as I think of Mrs. Lovett's line to Sweeney Todd, when, in her cockney accent she says, "You do like a good story don't ya?"

In addition to the bazillion other things we writers have to remember, we must "tell the story." It's easy right? Draw the reader in with a catchy opening line. Let's see... "Once upon a time" has been taken, along with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Wait, I have it, "It was a dark and stormy night." Maybe not. But we have to be creative. One word next to another until we've gotten our hooks into the reader. Easy! Yeah, right.

Perhaps the mystery writer has it easier than most. After all, we can dangle mystery, murder, and mayhem in those early lines to draw our readers in. In my first mystery, UNFORGIVING SHADOWS, the opening line is, "In ninety minutes Wilkie would die." Not a bad combination of six words for an opening line. There's only one problem: I had to come up with 64,994 more words.

Do you have a favorite opening line for a story you've read? Or one you've written? Please share in the comments section and join the conversation.

It's the Hap... Happiest Season of All

One of these days I'd like to write a mystery novel set during the Christmas holidays. Combining murder with the holidays seems incongruous, though many writers have successfully done it. The holiday season can be a stressful time and finding motivation for murder would be easy enough to develop.

Holidays are often an emotional time, perhaps because of strong memories associated with people who are no longer a part of our lives, or loved ones no longer with us.

My dad was born on Christmas, so the day carries those special memories. Last year, my mother-in-law passed away on Christmas. It was a day that felt like no other holiday I could ever remember.

I have written a short-story, with a tinge of mystery, that I hope captures the essence of why we celebrate the birth of Christ. You can click this link to read the story - A VISIT FROM SAINT DOMINICK. I hope you enjoy.

In the comments below share your Christmas/holiday memory, or perhaps you've read a novel/short story set during the holidays that you'd like to recommend.

Muddle in the Middle

Thanksgiving means so much more to me this year. Why? FINAL JUROR, the mystery novel I'm working on, is set during that time frame. So I'm very cognizant of the sights, sounds and smells of the season.

My detective, Brad Frame, is serving on a jury in a murder trial. It's lasting weeks, and as might be the case in real life the trial happens to span the Thanksgiving holiday. In fiction, grounding events in places and circumstances with which the reader can identify helps make it more believable. As part of my research, I visited the courthouse where the trial would take place. I determined that, in fact, trials take place nearly every working day of the year except holidays.

While I can give my protagonist a respite from the trial, I can't afford to let the reader get too far away from the plot of the mystery, which brings me to what I call the "muddle in the middle."Every book has a beginning, middle and end--and each of those story aspects creates its own set of challenges. For me, the beginning of a mystery novel is all about setting up the premise of the story. Usually a murder has taken place and the reason is established as to why Brad Frame is going to take on the case. My objective is to raise lots of questions that will draw the reader into the story. In the final 50 - 75 pages I try to wrap up the plot in a satisfying way. Hopefully, the solution won't come "out of left field" even though the reader may be surprised by the ending.

It's in the middle of the story that I'm planting cues, laying red herrings, misdirecting the reader so s/he doesn't readily see the truth of what my detective sees. Middles are the most challenging part, in my opinion. It's important to me that all of the clue planting--as well as the misdirection--be organic to the story. So I'm plodding my way through the middle of my story, and eager to get to the wrap-up.

Muddle in the middle isn't what's stuffed inside the Thanksgiving bird, it's the framework that takes the detective (and the reader) through the puzzle and toward the ultimate solution.

Do you have any pet peeves about the middle of mystery stories that you've read? Please feel free to join the conversation.

I Could Use Your Help

I'm currently working on the fifth book in the Brad Frame series, FINAL JUROR.

Rachel Tetlow asks Brad to investigate the seventeen-year-old murder of her father while he served as a juror in a Federal racketeering case. Rachel wants answers after all these years. Brad explains that in spite of the odds of success after such a lapse in time, that they will look into the case.

But Brad gets sidetracked on helping Rachel when he is picked for a jury in a case where a man is accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body into a freezer.

Brad's assistant, Sharon Porter, tackles Rachel's case, while Brad ponders the evidence in the courtroom with the benefit of his own background as a crime solving investigator.

My story is plotted, but I'd like to hear a few "Tales from the jury box" that I could incorporate to enhance the reader's experience. Have you served on a jury in a criminal case? If so, do you have any interesting stories to share? Things like weird statements fellow jurors make, donnybrooks in the deliberation room, funny anecdotes. In the novel, to convey the sense of juror confidentiality, I've only assigned first names to the jurors in the story. YOU could be one of those names, just by sharing a good jury story. And for a really spectacular tale, I'd even be willing to name one of the characters after you.

By all means, join this conversation. I can use your input.

Universal Truth

My high school senior English teacher was Miss Abigail Cresswell. Not merely Abigail Cresswell, mind you, "Miss" was part of her name. I did a Google search hoping that I might find a photograph of her, but there were none. Suffice it to say that if you looked up "stern" in the dictionary you might see her picture.

She assigned a "term paper," and mine featured Joseph Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley papers. The topic is emblazoned in my memory, but I had to research Addison for this post since my memory of the content was sketchy. Sir Roger is a fictional "country gentleman," and perhaps, in the dark recesses of my mind, Roger influenced my future Brad Frame character?

Our term paper had a due date, and more than once Miss Cresswell would peer out at us over the top of her glasses and say, "Woe be unto you if you do not have your paper in on time." (She never defined the consequences, leaving that to our imaginations. I pictured the guillotine, since we'd read A Tale of Two Cities earlier in the semester.)

I'd worked on the paper, but on the day before it was due I got sick. With "woe be unto you" echoing in my brain, I stretched out on the living room sofa, feeling miserable, but finished writing my paper.

What endures from her class is the concept of "universal truth." As a seventeen-year-old I couldn't comprehend its application, but in the same way that "woe be unto you" stayed with me, the notion of universal truth began to make sense when I had a few more years under my belt and especially when I began writing. When readers can identify with the people and situations that populate our books, they have broader appeal. I'm glad to finally have a chance to thank Miss Abigail Cresswell for teaching me that lesson.

Did you have a teacher or mentor that had a strong influence on your life? Join in the conversation with a comment below.

How Would I Know?

Write about what you know! Isn't that the mantra that every writer hears from colleagues when he/she decides to write a story?

I first created the Brad Frame character in 1987. My work as an arts advocate (at that time) took me to Philadelphia every few weeks via Amtrak and I would pass through the wealthy neighborhoods of "The Main Line"  where Brad Frame lives. I decided that if my protagonist was wealthy it would give him wider latitude accepting clients and more freedom in conducting his investigations. 

My diverse career working with juvenile delinquents, administering a police in-service training program, and teaching criminal justice at the college level provided a real-world connection to the life and skills of a private investigator. How many other mystery writers can boast that they've been to fourteen county jails, two state prisons, and one federal correction center? (As a visitor, I hasten to add.) Avocational experience in theatre helped me with the skills to craft a scene and write good dialogue.

But why would an independently wealthy man launch his own detective business? Writing what you know also entails an appreciation of gut level feelings. I wanted to tap into Brad Frame's emotional core, and draw on my own experience to do so. My youngest brother committed suicide at the age of 22. It was an event that is seared into my memory, and a tragedy that shook our family to the core. 

But that sad occasion helped me establish Brad Frame's motivation to become a detective. His "back story" involved the kidnapping and murder of his mother and sister. After he helped the police find their killers he joined forces with Philadelphia police detective Nick Argostino to set up his agency and bring justice to the lives of others.

UNFORGIVING SHADOWS was the first in the Brad Frame series. (Which is now priced at $0.99 for e-readers.) It afforded me an opportunity to bring his back story to life as Brad is invited to the execution by lethal injection for one of the two men responsible for the death of his mother and sister.

You can check out the opening chapter, and please join in the conversation with your comments.

Who's Your Daddy (or Mother)?

My first exposure to mysteries was in the third grade when I read The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. It really sparked my imagination. I grew up in a small town with three sets of railroad tracks passing through it, and my dad ran a factory where a railway siding was used to deliver materials, so I'd seen the inside of real boxcars. All of the above contributed to my love of trains. Is it any wonder that Brad Frame - my fictional detective - is a train aficionado?

I later "graduated" to The Hardy Boys, and can still recall how it felt exploring Mr. Applegate's creepy house in The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon.

By high school I'd discovered Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason mysteries, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, and the Ellery Queen stories. Later I found Agatha Christie's Poirot. A theme among those early favorites was the use of either a "Watson" character to recount the cases, or trusted associates. Della Street and Paul Drake, Archie Goodwin, and Captain Hastings, were as integral to the stories as the well-known protagonists. That influenced me to expand Sharon Porter's role in the Brad Frame series. Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Michael Palmer, Vince Flynn, Brad Meltzer, David Baldacci, and Nelson DeMille have joined my recent reading list. I love mystery series, because whenever I find an author I like that's written a series I know there will be lots of great reading ahead. It's also clear from these early influences that I love a whodunit, and try to surprise readers with the outcome of each Brad Frame story.

I labeled this post "Who's Your Daddy (or Mother)?" in the belief that our early reading and life experiences are the progenitor to the creative process.

What kind of mysteries do you like to read? And can you trace your current reading/writing interests to a "first" book experience? Share your comment and join the conversation.

3, 2, 1... Relaunch!

In the summer of 2013, as I prepared to retire and devote full-time to my writing, I launched this blog. Not completely sure of what I was doing, I pressed forward because everyone advised, "You're a writer; you need a blog." Okay then.

Every other week like clockwork I put up a new post. I blogged about the writing process, a one-man show about Ben Franklin on which I was working, mused on the value of a writers' critique group, and provided links to short stories, videos and my books.

My last blog post was in mid-December, a time when my wife had just come out of the hospital and my mother-in-law was hospitalized. The prognosis for my mother-in-law was not good and she died on Christmas Day. The day after her funeral my wife re-entered the hospital. Little did I realize at the time that she would pass away nine days later. Sad times!

To say that my life felt like it had been kicked to the curb is an understatement; more like being catapulted into the void between Mars and Jupiter. In the last few months I sold our place in Maryland, downsized for the move, and settled into a comfortable new condo in Florida where, when the snow starts flying up north, I expect to see visitors. :-) Every day I shake my head in wonder at all that has transpired. I've learned a lot about resilience. My life is good, just not what I expected it to be few short months ago. I'm grateful for family and old friends who have seen me through tough times, and for new friends and acquaintances who have welcomed me to my new life.

I'm grounded by my writing. Stirring those "creative juices" keeps me going. I've re-titled this blog, LIFE'S A MYSTERY. Perhaps that truth is why mysteries resonate with readers. My take away from the past nine months is that our time together is fleeting. I want to enjoy all that life has to offer and plan to use this blog to share my thoughts about this incredible journey and how "life's mysteries" infuse my mystery writing. My hope is that you'll join in the conversation with your comments. 

You can see more about my books and short stories at www.rayflynt.com.